How to be secure - apps?

[Ankelium]

Hello, beginner here, please be kind.

I keep hearing that Mac is safe and has no need for real-time scanner, but also that it is needed, but apps for that are... bad.

I heard Norton is very bad?
Are Avira, Avast, AVG or Sophos bad for Mac health?

Among free apps I keep seeing only Malwarebytes that is considered good.

I download apps only from App Shop or from known pages (like VLC player). I don't go to suspicious sites, but save images from boards (sometimes gif and webm) and I surf places like Tumblr for pics and cat videos (downloading mp4s sometimes from tumblr's server).


With lifestyle like this, is there an app I need? Is there any real time protection against potential ******** and trojans? Or are all those realtimers harmful towards Mac?

Would I be secure if I simply run Malwarebytes every day to see if something slipped in?

 

[Floris]

These 'tools' are worse than any virus you run the risk of getting (and won't get).
Stop ruining your system by installing this nonsense software. They're not windows, there's no need for it.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

Malwarebytes is more than enough, but you don't have to run it everyday. It's not Windows.

These 'tools' are worse than any virus you run the risk of getting (and won't get).
Stop ruining your system by installing this nonsense software. They're not windows, there's no need for it.

+1.

 

[DeltaMac]

Does Malwarebytes ever find anything?
Running that every day is likely unnecessary if it never detects anything new on your system.
I run Malwarebytes about once a month, and it may detect something once or twice a year, depends on what I am doing.
The others - not really needed.

Try to avoid the cat videos
Nothing dangerous, but you should try to break that habit anyway.
Unless there are kittens, too. Those are OK...

 

[Floris]

It's all human behavior.

Don't click on links you don't have to click on.
Use incognito mode if you don't even have an account.
Use uBlock, Ghostery, or Privacy badger, or all together in your browser.
Don't use public proxy/vpn nonsense.
Don't click on email you never asked for.
Don't trust the emails you think are legit.
Manually go to known urls, and rotate your login credentials.
Don't take html emails, stick to plaintext.

And none of this is #tinfoilhat stuff, it's normal behavior.
Instead of randomly clicking on everything 'because you can'. And then having to ask how to fix ransomware or some rootkit.

It might take a bit of getting used to. But it's easy and not impossible. The more lazy you are, and the more aware you are of the risks of just clicking and trusting things.. the saver you are online.

First tip: backup
pro tip: backup
bonus tip: backup

 

[Tech198]

ok. well, i use none of these... What's next question

Any software is always a second line of defense whichever OS use, since u *take your brain out of thinking* and instead rely on software to make good head way for u...

"Gee, thanks for blocking me,, I would have never guessed"

only learning by your mistakes stands good. and, more importantly, don't *repeat them* otherwise, u have not learnt anything

I would have said u don't need to know about tech to use it, but with Windows and Mac (sine now malware is on Mac), you really do need to be aware. Standard account will help, but if u insist on using admin account, then use your brain first.